Comments for Jane Devin

Comment on Poverty Series II: What is Being Poor in America? by Pamela

Pamela — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:21:41 +0000

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew, 5:5) When might that start to happen? Anyone?

Poverty is a global epidemic and North America is fast approaching third world standards. That is, the working poor are fast approaching third world standards - and being snubbed for it.

Anyone CAN end up in poverty. There was a time I was making $25per hour + bonuses, in a management position - then I got sick - no job now. We lost our benefits at work due to economic downturn. SO - I went from making good money and comfortable living to poverty and scraping by with no disability. Luckily, I grew up in poverty. I had a mom who taught me how to make money stretch. Eventually - I hope to turn things around. The funny thing is: People still think I have money because I still have the same friends and wear the same clothes. I am still treated with respect! When I was a kid we were treated like trash. Perception is everything. I don’t pretend to be something I’m not - I have bigger things to deal with - but people make assumptions. For the most part, assumptions are bullshit!

Great post - look forward to the rest!!

Comment on Poverty Series I: Beyond Joe & Jane Six-Pack and other Human Parodies by Kate

Kate — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:08:54 +0000

OMG, Tammy!
Small worlds are colliding!
My father drove a cement mixer for the plant whose named changed from Upland to Pomona to Blue Diamond Ready Mix. I grew up in Ontario and still go back to see my mom, grandmother and one brother several times a year. My Gram is now in the Alzheimer’s care home just north of San Antonio Community Hospital, where I was born.
Ibegan my teaching career at Foothill Knolls Elementary School, which is one block north of Foothill, near Upland Memorial Park.
I know the Sycamore Inn well. That’s where the “rich people” ate. I felt like I was living the dream when my now-husband of 27 years took me there after we’d dated for several years.
Surreal!

Comment on Poverty Series I: Beyond Joe & Jane Six-Pack and other Human Parodies by Tammy

Tammy — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:50:19 +0000

Hey Kate -

What part of Foothill Blvd??
I grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, so I assume it’s the S. Cali version of said Blvd, am I right?

I have lots of memories from that place, lots of stories. What stands out most clearly in relation to Jane’s topic is the sight of my uncle Jeff in his early forties pushing a shopping cart to a place he slept in behind the Sycamore Inn. Jeff died of a rip-roaring endocarditis at the age of forty-six. His illness was very likely caused by rotting teeth.

Tammy

Comment on Poverty Series II: What is Being Poor in America? by Alison

Alison — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:10:28 +0000

Jane, I agree with whoever said “the measure of a society is how it treats its weakest members”. And I extend that yardstick to include how it treats its homeless dogs and cats in addition to the have-not humanoids. So many municipalities think nothing of cutting animal shelter budgets, even in more prosperous times, as a show of cutting frivolous spending. My heart aches for all the people, and for their precious pets, now that so many are forced to surrender or abandon them due to displacement. My only hope after all this economic turmoil bottoms out, however long that may be, is that a new society with all new priorities emerges. One that completely rejects the shallow, self-serving, materialistic values of our current society for a compassionate, generous and inclusive culture that promotes the value of helping take care of each other and the animals, domestic or otherwise, whose survival also depends on us.

Comment on Poverty Series II: What is Being Poor in America? by Donna L. Faber

Donna L. Faber — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:23:59 +0000

Hey Jane … I love the new look. Very compelling and pertinent to your latest series of articles.

Poverty (sigh) …

As it relates to the American landscape, I got my real taste of what was happening, and my first real view of the class rift that exists, where I was working last year in Connecticut. I was working for a major company that deals with outsourced office services. Won’t mention the name here. Anyhow, I was managing 20 people across various departments in a big, publically owned, pharmaceutical company that had like 1500 people present, most researchers and scientists, on campus all the time. It was a mildly engaging job, didn’t pay squat, but I had three good supervisors that were eager to learn.

But I wander from my point. Always talking about myself.

Keep in mind that this company, the one I worked for, makes it’s revenue underpaying staff so it can mark up their cost to its client. The folks I managed had a pay range that went as low as $8.00 an hour all the way up to maybe $19 depending on the need and presence of a specific skill set, right?

My lower waged people had one definitive marker … you glanced at them and knew they were poor. Knew the sacrifices they had to make. What was it? Missing teeth. Right in the front of their face. One of my staff, a mail workers, just didn’t bother wearing her prosthetic because it annoyed her … her appearance and the way she was perceived stopped being an issue for her long, long before I got there.

Then I started noticing it everywhere. The lady at the food window of Taco Bell, trying to give good service, slurring her words because she was missing eight teeth, upper jaw, right in the front. The lady at the grocery store, people at the gas station, CSA’s working at my grandmother’s rest home. They all bore the mark of the American poor … missing teeth.

It was an intense realization for me. I learned a lot of respect for these people managing them, but it also took more than 6 months for them to realize I wanted to work with them, rather than corral them, as they were so used to being treated a certain way.

It was really intense.